Perfume Meaning
/ˈpɜːfjuːm/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA pleasant smell; the scent, odor, or odoriferous particles emitted from a sweet-smelling substance; a pleasant odor.
nounA substance created to provide a pleasant smell or one which emits an agreeable odor.
Sentence Examples
The perfume of roses filled the room.
The flowers give off a very pleasant perfume.
The faint smell of her perfume lingered in the room.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She sprayed some ____ on her wrist before going to the party to smell nice.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She dabbed a small amount of ____ on her wrists before leaving for the evening event.
Word Origin & History
Borrowed from Middle French parfum, perfum. Doublet of parfum.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Breezes blowing from beds of iris quickened her breath with their perfume; she saw the tufted lilacs sway in the wind, and the streamers of mauve-tinted wistaria swinging, all a-glisten with golden bees; she saw a crimson cardinal winging through the foliage, and amorous tanagers flashing like scarlet flames athwart the pines."
— 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, “Afterglow”, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC, page 168:
"Among the Turks, an exciting compound consists of olibanum, myrrh, camphor, musk, in pulverized form. The resultant perfume is said to affect the genitals."
— 1961, Harry E. Wedeck, Dictionary of Aphrodisiacs, New York: The Citadel Press, page 168:
"The market for prestige perfumes is pretty much restricted to what industry economists call “gotrocks ladies”—women in households with annual incomes over $40,000 and who are over forty but still young enough to have a sense of smell (Elizabeth Taylor, for instance)."
— 1987 October, Timothy Kalich, “Marketing: What's in a Smell?”, in The Atlantic, →ISSN:
"The perfume industry is facing a major problem: maintaining constant levels of quality is crucial, but it is increasingly difficult to obtain a regular supply of all the necessary natural ingredients."
— 2014 March 7, Nicole Vulser, “Perfume manufacturers must cope with the scarcity of precious supplies”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 190, number 13, page 30:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
She sprayed some ____ on her wrist before going to the party to smell nice.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
She dabbed a small amount of ____ on her wrists before leaving for the evening event.